Creating A Book Trailer: Introduction

Some of you might be wondering how I put my latest book trailer together. I work as a graphic artist in a civil engineering company, mostly doing layout and some minor special effects. So I have intermediate knowledge on Adobe products, enough to do color correction, enhancements, and illustrations. This made it much easier to learn other Adobe software, specifically Premier and After Effects.

I was first introduced to After Effects when I began making machinima videos like Edge of Remorse (still my favorite of all time), which led me to seek out tutorials on creating special effects. I found Video Copilot (VC) on the net and was wow'd (yes, pun intended) by their professional tutorials. I began acquiring their products over time, but eventually the day job took over my life and I had to put my dream of becoming the greatest machinima designer in the world  on hold.

Several years later, I realized I needed to create a book trailer for my upcoming releases. So I went back to VC's web site where I absorbed as much knowledge as I could. Eventually, I created the book trailer you see for The Shaman's Beacon. I still wish I could spend more time on it, but that wouldn't be practical. I'm no After Effects expert by any means, but I tried in my most limited way came up with a script, storyboard, and ultimately compiled the images and scenes until I could put it all together in Adobe Premier, where I added sound effects and a few additional musical tracks.

I can't teach you everything I've learned for the past five years, but you can learn them yourself at Andrew Kramer's website, which I highly recommend. His products are so popular they have been used in Star Trek, Transformers 3, music videos, and even in Terry Goodkind's promo materials (book trailers, etc.).

Below I've compiled some awesome samples and/or behind the scene documentaries to whet your appetite.

The following video is an excellent behind the scenes look at how VC put their Demon Orb product video together, including how they created the special effects. Great stuff!




After using VC's products for years and learning from his many tutorials I still have absolutely no idea what I'm doing. BUT, I know enough to be dangerous. If you haven't already, be sure to watch The Shaman's Beacon book trailer here.

There are many throughout the entertainment industry who use VC's products, including the folks that put together Terry Goodkind's latest book trailer, The Omen Machine. Take a look and those of you who are familiar with Andrew's work will see and hear it below.



Below includes music from VC's Pro Scores. Optical Flares was most likely used as well. Trapcode Particular was also used (the little floating particles) which add a very nice effect.



The big thing here is to try, try and retry until you get what you want. There are countless tutorials out there and you can even buy pre-made templates for After Effects (like from CreativeLabs). You do have to have After Effects, but once you do the sky is the limit. That's the hard part--What do you put in your trailer?

My next post will go over script writing and storyboarding.

Plots and things

I've gotten some good plot concepts down and will now work out fleshing out the story on my newest project.

I've gotten back into raiding in World of Warcraft. Fortunately, I've been able to finally reach the Lich King, which was something I thought I wouldn't see. I'm very happy to be part of a guild that is progressing nicely. It helps we have a good group of people. Which brings me to another subject...

My mother used to say, "People are stupid." Honestly, I have a more positive experience with people. Ever since I've started playing World of Warcraft, I've met some doozies and I've met some gems. Over the years I've developed friendships with people I not only associate with in the video game, but in real life too. They are good people with hearts of gold and I am tickled pink to know them. When I consider that I would never have met them had I not played the video game, it makes me realize just how amazing technology can be. More over, I am grateful to those who had a dream of making the best MMORPG in the world. It allowed people like my husband and I to connect while apart (my husband lived in South Africa while we 'dated' on-line), meet like minded individuals, and participate in a club-like environment to build and achieve goals as a team. I find it ironic that although the game has a more positive impact on people's lives, both the media and politicians focus only on the few individuals who can't seem to get a real life and use the game as an excuse to destroy their lives. Playing a video game is like anything else in life, you are in control not it. To blame video games for the ills of society is as foolish as spending 48 hours playing it without eating or working. So, play on my fellow gamers. And let the lootz roll.